A long long time ago
by jacarandadm
Summary: DM in another place at another time. You know what happened - but did you know the fab4 were involved? ~COMPLETE~ Thank you very much for your reviews!!!
1. Part 1

This story is dedicated to everyone who is bored at school right now. It is planned as a short two-parter.   
  
Thanks, StrangePenguin, for your wonderful idea :-))  
  
Disclaimer: Toti FabQuatro do nullus belongus to meus but to alius ingenius...  
  
  
**A long long time ago...**  
  
  
The azure blue of the sky shimmered through the clouds. Not long and the sun would have reconquered her permanent place at the sky. But before the heat could press down on everyone, there was the spring first. The rain of the last two days had done well to the flowers, they would soon unfold their blossoms. As for now, it was time that it became warmer. But you couldn't please anybody with the weather.  
  
"And I tell you, carriage number 2 could have won the race!"  
  
"Yes, but only if every other carriage had broken down before the finish line", came the sarcastic answer.  
  
"Nonsense, you don't know anything about carriage races!"  
  
"I bet on the right carriage, you have lost however. So don't tell me I don't know anything about them."  
  
Marcus grinned as he heard two well-known and quarrelling voices from the inside of the house. He got up from the sunbed in the garden to welcome his son.  
  
"Ave, Father!"  
  
After Marcus had embraced his son Stephanus Marcus, he asked, "Stephane! How was the race?"  
  
"Wonderful! I won!" he responded with a content grin.  
  
Grumbling a man who was part of the quarrel raised his voice. "It pleased him just because he won. Else it was a boring race, nobody tried tricks, no carriages broke. Nothing!"  
  
This complaint out of the grousiest mouth you could find in the Roman empire and the little rest of the world, made Marcus smile again. Jesse had always been doing that since he had served his apprenticeship at the medicus who was blessed with a very old age. Meanwhile Jesse could count himself as a Roman inhabitant, after countless years of living here since he left his native village Elginea to get to know the centre of the world.  
  
In the meantime, Marcus wasn't simply an archiatros, a doctor employed by the state, but also senator, and that was why he couldn't be in the practice that often. Instead he had delegated the responsibility to Jesse, and till now everything went fine.  
  
Stephanus turned from the carriage race to a far more actual affair. "How does Caesar come along in senate? Has he distributed free honours again?"  
  
"Oh, by Iuppiter, something's rotten there, I feel that. You know, he should be given the honour of being the first in marble next to a Iuppiter statue, but he refused kindly."  
  
"At least he thanked them", Jesse said.  
  
"Such has been the case for weeks now. You still remember, in Februaris, when he should be handed over the Iuppiter's diadem? The people raged when he refused", Stephanus said.  
  
"Yes, it's soothing very much." Marcus frowned. "Perhaps that'll change soon. At least, I hope that. Caesar has had some clever thought that he likes to put into action, but I fear, first he'll have to command a campaign against the Germans before the senate, and above all the people, stands behind his projects."  
  
"Till Caesar will have conquered Germany, years could go by! They keep themselves well up, for barbarians", Jesse said in an admiring tone. "But the war against the Parthers will pour oil on troubled waters hopefully."  
  
"You mean, something's brewing among the people? A revolution?" Stephanus asked.  
  
"Not among the people. At the senate!" Marcus pointed out. "It was too quiet during the last days, nobody contradicted really, though I expected at least a grimace by Caesar's greatest enemies Quintus Ligarius and Gaius Trebonius. I don't like to say it, son, but keep an eye on them, even if you and Quintus are good friends!"  
  
"I do, father." Stephanus knew well to rely on Marcus' feeling. It had helped him in all the years he had been working for the police to arrest the real assassins.  
  
At that moment an African woman entered the garden. "Avete, you can't tell what's up at the forum! When I went shopping with Colin Jesse, it was rumoured that Caesar hadn't much time to live!" Exhausted she sat down on a bench that was placed next to the sunbed.  
  
"Who said that?" Stephanus asked, worried.  
  
"Iulia, the baker Iulius Venitus' daughter. I met her with her daughter Clara in the forum."  
  
"Not she who believed a few weeks ago that the whole city of Rome would be struck by a flood, is she?" Jesse giggled at Stephanus mocking question.  
  
"That's her. But now, she says, now she's absolutely sure! She has seen it. I don't believe her either, guys, though it does seem strange to me."  
  
Stephanus threw a look at his father. Amanda noticed. "Have I missed anything?"  
  
Jesse felt obliged to explain instead of his friends. "Well, you know, Amanda, Marcus thinks, it's brewing in the senate. He believes, there really could happen a hell of a row."  
  
Amanda watched at Marcus in surprise.  
  
"Ah, perhaps those are heralds that I, a very old man, should retire soon", Marcus said as an excuse.  
  
"To talk of something nicer", Amanda wanted to change the subject, "Claudius Severus' daughter Tullia has given birth to a boy…"  
  
  



	2. Part 2

_Here the author believes not being in the position to go into every detail and directs her attention on a house, or rather on a room in this house at the opposite end of the city of Rome, where some remarkable men met in the evening of Martius 14 in the year of 44 BC._  
  
_Gaius Trebonius: _How long do you think you want to sit there and grin broadly at the ceiling?  
  
_Quintus Ligarius:_ Hm? Oh, I've just imagined how it will be after the senate's session. People will be content with our work. They'll celebrate this day as a red-letter-day.  
  
_Gaius: _Sure they do. We are going to free the people of the cruel dictator's tyranny. A fantastic idea, isn't it?  
  
_Quintus: _Good. Well, you know what to do tomorrow?  
  
_Gaius: _Tell the Consul Marcus Antonius a nice little story in front of the entrance, so that he won't appear in the senate in time.  
  
_Quintus:_ Good. Ah, it's Marcus Brutus coming. He Marce, nice to see you've come here.  
  
_Brutus: _I've heard, you don't plan to kill the second Consul any more. A wise decision, I always said this!  
  
_Quintus:_ You've indeed convinced us. He seemed really too precious and too strong to me to risk a second murder. Are Decimus Brutus, Gaius Longinus and Lucius Timber ready?  
  
_Brutus: _I met them this afternoon, they are ready to make tomorrow a success for the honour of the Republic.  
  
_Quintus:_ Great! Questions? No? Well, as everything is clear, we should fill the night with sleep. Good night!  
  
_Brutus and Gaius: _Good night!  
  
  
  
  
The next morning, Caesar suffered badly from a fierce headache. No, not just one, it seemed as if Hannibal's elephants were arranging a race in his head. Grumpy he sat down at the breakfast table. His wife looked at him in concern.  
  
"How's my little Gaius?"  
  
Caesar sighed. "I won't sit in the senate today. I'm ill."  
  
"Oh, and this short before your big battle! You should really lay down at once, I make the doctor come."  
  
"Aw, won't be that bad. I'll simply stay in bed today and we'll see tomorrow."  
  
"Was a more amusing evening yesterday a your Magister's?"  
  
"Stop mocking about me or my parties, woman! I celebrate whenever and as long as I want!"  
  
"Okay, okay, Iulius. You should really go to bed!"  
  
"I'm just going to change the senate's session before."  
  
  
  
  
Everyone was on his place, Marcus Brutus had assured himself. Who was missing, was Caesar. Had someone told him? He took a deep breath and let it out in one go in relief when he saw his victim come around the corner. He turned to him. "Ave Caesar. Who's getting honoured today?"  
  
"Nobody, I'm going to adjourn the session."  
  
"Oh Caesar, may I ask, why?"  
  
"My corpus won't stand the pressure, I have to give him some rest."  
  
"Just before your campaign against the Parthers? Won't the people misunderstand this like you aren't equal to the battle? Especially now you have to show power and not adjourn the session."  
  
"Maybe you're right, we ought to enter first and see. Work will change my mind off my aches."  
  
As Brutus followed Caesar into Pompeius' Curia, he swept off the sweat of his forehead.  
  
  
  
  
Marcus was already sitting when he saw Caesar and Brutus enter the building. He noticed the nervousness in Brutus' face. He followed him with his eyes, until the man had sat down in some distance from Caesar. Perhaps I'm seeing ghosts, he thought in silence. Nevertheless he had asked his son, Jesse and Amanda to wait in front of the Curia if something worse happened.  
  
Before the session began, Lucius Tillius Cimber went to the front, with a request of grace for his brother. Caesar refused.  
  
At that moment this Lucius pulled off Caesar's toga. Immediately about fifty men jumped off the chairs and ran to Caesar, each of them armed with a knife or a dagger. You heard screams, a wild massacre had begun, everyone wanted to stab Caesar first, and if not, then at least second or third, if once at all.  
  
Marcus had also jumped off his seat nut didn't dare to approach at the mass one inch. from the number of screams he guessed that not only Caesar was hit by the sharp things, but because of the narrowness the aggressors stabbed themselves, although unintentionally.  
  
Only after some minutes, that seemed like eternity to Marcus, the assassins let go of their victim, but Brutus stabbed one last time at Caesar, at which the man got up from his seat, turned to him and asked him bitterly, "You, too, Brutus?", before he broke down soiled with blood in front of Pompeius' statue.  
  
Brutus cleaned his dagger and put it in. He wanted to stand now in front of the public and explain everything, and tell that the Republic had been rescued from a dictatorship.  
  
In the meantime, Marcus went to the front and checked the corpse. Twenty-three stabs, before he had broken down. Marcus sighed, dejected and went outside where Brutus was standing and doing a speech about their good intentions with their plan. But the shocked men who flew out of the Curia, handed their panic over to the people, also the conspirators were taken by the panic and flew. Turmoil broke out and bloody wars about the succession of the dictator. While Stephanus was trying to arrest the murderers who had flown and were on their ways to their provinces, Marcus, Amanda and Jesse took care of the injured and dead people that could be found in every street and every alley.  
  
From now on, everybody knew, nothing would be the same as then.  
  
  
  
T H E E N D  
  



End file.
